A bunch of people had trouble getting tickets for Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert tour, and the United States Senate has decided that it has to spring into action to address the cause of the problem:  a lack of competition.

It’s amusing to read statements like the one made by Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar:

Ticketmaster’s power in the primary ticket market insulates it from the competitive pressures that typically push companies to innovate and improve their services.

Klobuchar and other Democratic senators are alarmed that Ticketmaster has a market share of around 60%, which they see as evidence that the company needs to be broken up.

But while we’re on the subject of breaking up harmful monopolies, here are some questions worth considering:

• What’s the market share of the public school system?
• What kinds of competitive pressures are faced by the public school system, and how have those pressures resulted in innovation and improvement?
• How do the ‘significant service failures’ suffered by consumers at the hands of Ticketmaster compare, in  scope and importance, to the failures suffered by students, parents, and taxpayers at the hands of the public school system?

This seems like a perfect opportunity for some Republican senators to join in the call to break up harmful monopolies… beginning with the public school system, and getting around to companies like Ticketmaster only after that’s been dealt with.

 

The post While We’re Breaking up Monopolies… appeared first on Granite Grok.

NHexit.US

The NHexit.US blog has a detailed story looking at what happened to the 13 state representatives who voted for the NH Independence bill this year, CACR 32. How many of them were re-elected? Turns out, of those who ran again and made it to the general election, 100% of them were re-elected!

Despite the democrats trying to make secession an issue, and despite the fears of the state reps who were too cowardly to vote for the bill, we now know that being in favor of NH independence, or at least being in favor of letting the people vote on the question – which is all the bill would have done – is not a guaranteed end to a state rep’s career.

For a full breakdown of how the NH Independence reps fared in this year’s election, see the article here at NHexit.US.

If your child learned this in school, please add a comment below and thank their teacher.

On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln issued a proclamation designating “the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving.” Lincoln’s announcement marked the culmination of a multi-decade campaign by Sarah Josepha Hale to make Thanksgiving into a national holiday. Although Lincoln wrote the vast majority of his state papers, the Thanksgiving Proclamation was in fact drafted by Seward.

Washington DC, October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/abraham-lincolns-proclamation-thanksgiving

The post President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation–Did Your Kids Learn This in School ? appeared first on Granite Grok.

(Image H/T: Rush Limbaugh)

I thought that I had used his recounting of the First Thanksgiving. Instead, in trying to find his Thanksgiving post on communal vs private property rights, I found this one instead. It’s a good one all on its own and I urge you to read it.  However, it was Rush I was looking for and I did.  From the Limbaugh transcript from Nov 17, 2019:

Whatever happens, whatever’s going on with you, we hope it’s a great one. Do you realize next year will be the 400th anniversary of Thanksgiving? Four hundred years since the Pilgrims arrived without guaranteed reservations at Plymouth Rock.

Greetings, my friends. Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of Rush Limbaugh program. We are going to do what we always do. We will recite to you the real story of Thanksgiving as first written about by me in my best-seller, See, I Told You So, Chapter 6: “Dead White Guys, or What the History Books Never Told You. The True Story of Thanksgiving.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Look at this, folks. I went to the computer during the break just to check and see if anything had happened, and I got a message. I got a message from the guy that used to mow my lawn when I lived in Kansas City. When I lived in that shack and worked for the Royals, I couldn’t pay anybody to mow the lawn, but I was able to get him Royals tickets. His name is Dan. So I got a message from Dan. He says, “I wish you could see this. Maria and I are driving out to Colorado Springs.”

They live in Kansas City still. They’re driving out to Colorado Springs for a wedding over Thanksgiving. “I’m in the backseat of the minivan because I’m rehabbing from a hip replacement. Anyway, five minutes ago, I hear this cheer. Maria cheers like the Chiefs have won the Super Bowl. But of course the Chiefs haven’t won the Super Bowl. No, it was because you are on live today. No guest host! Our minivan is cheering that you’re there. So bless you. Have a great Thanksgiving.”

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Happy Thanksgiving to one and all from all of us. And, of course, this begins the — here, anyway, the official beginning of the holiday season, which is a great time of year. But you know what suffers during the holiday season is normalcy. You’ve got less action happening than normally does, business is slowed down in a sense. I mean, sales pick up, hopefully. But conflicting times, but we hope it’s joyous for all of you, as joyous as it can be.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We’re here on Thanksgiving eve as we start the holiday season. It’s an annual tradition. It’s actually not quite 30 years now we’ve been reading from my second book, See, I Told You So, Chapter 6: “Dead White Guys, or What the History Books Never Told You: The True Story of Thanksgiving.” I also have George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, the very first one, and also the truth of how the Indians screwed the Pilgrims out of Manhattan. Everybody thinks that we screwed the Indians and gave ’em a bunch of garbage for Manhattan.

It’s the other way around, actually — and it’s something I look forward to every year. And you know what? Despite doing it every year, with millions and millions and millions of people having heard it, there’s still a bunch of caca out there about Thanksgiving. I mentioned earlier that the College Fix website has a headline: “Students say it’s NOT okay to celebrate Thanksgiving,” that it’s “‘based off of the genocide of indigenous people.’”

What’s being done to young skulls full of mush via the education system in our country and cumulatively over decades is nothing less than obscene. Yesterday at the College Fix website, they posted a video where their correspondent, Kyle Hooten, interviewed students at Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, and asked them about Thanksgiving, and here’s about 45 seconds of it…

WOMAN #1: I think that, like, Thanksgiving has been misconstrued a lot, especially in textbooks, and it’s kind of just based off of the genocide of indigenous people. And I don’t really any that we actually give thanks on Thanksgiving. We just eat a bunch of food and a bunch of capitalist bulls(bleep)t.

HOOTEN: Is it okay to celebrate Thanksgiving?

MAN #1: Nnnno. It’s probably not as bad as Christmas or Easter but, like, I don’t know.

HOOTEN: So what do you think the real Thanksgiving story is?

MAN #2: I don’t know what it is (snickers) ’cause I wasn’t there and ’cause I don’t have the — all the historical information.

WOMAN #2: I mean, the public school education — ugh! — tells you that this Thanksgiving was this great meeting where, you know, the Native Americans showed the Pilgrims how to, you know, grow corn — and obviously that’s not true. But what legitimately happened on Thanksgiving? I have no idea.

RUSH: If you have no idea, then what the hell was the answer, “Well, you know, what’s being taught is we gave thanks to the Indians gave thanks, the Indians teaching how to grow corn, maize, popcorn, and all that”? It is amazing when you stop and think about it. I don’t know what you were taught about Thanksgiving, but I was taught a version that goes like this: The Pilgrims showed up, and they were incompetents. They were well-intentioned good-hearted people but incompetent, and they didn’t know how to do anything. They were stumbling and bumbling around in a foreign place, had no idea even where they were.

And as they’re on the verge of starvation, the Indians stumbled upon ’em — across them — and showed them how to basically live, gave them everything, showed them how to grow crops and kill turkey and build tepees and stuff, and so the Pilgrims survived, and we were giving thanks, that Thanksgiving is to acknowledge the Indians’ role in saving the first Pilgrims. Now, it’s a quaint story, and it has attached itself to a number of people, but it is nothing to do…

Well, I can’t say that it’s nothing to do, but it is very far removed from what the first Thanksgiving is really about. Thanksgiving. George Washington first proclaimed it, Thanksgiving. Well, who was thanking who for what? That’s the root of the error. The root of it is that the Pilgrims must have been giving thanks to the Indians for saving them. That’s not what the Pilgrims were thankful for, as you will soon hear.

“The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century (that’s the 1600s for those of you in Rio Linda, California). The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority.” The first Pilgrims were Christian rebels, folks. “Those who challenged [King James’] ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs” in England in the 1600s.

“A group of separatists,” Christians who didn’t want to buy into the Church of England or live under the rule of King James, “first fled to Holland and established a community” of themselves there. “After eleven years, about forty of them” having heard about this New World Christopher Columbus had discovered, decided to go. Forty of them “agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where [they knew] they would certainly face hardships, but” the reason they did it was so they “could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences” and beliefs.

“On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims,” now known as Pilgrims, “led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established” how they would live once they got there. The contract set forth “just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs,” or political beliefs. “Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible.

The Pilgrims were a “devoutly religious people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.” They believed in God. They believed they were in the hands of God. As you know, “this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey” to the New World on the tiny, by today’s standards, sailing ship. It was long, it was arduous.

There was sickness, there was seasickness, it was wet. It was the opposite of anything you think of today as a cruise today on the open ocean. When they “landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves.” There was nothing.

“[T]he sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims — including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.” They endured that first winter. “When spring finally came,” they had, by that time, met the indigenous people, the Indians, and indeed the “Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers” and other animals “for coats.” But there wasn’t any prosperity. “[T]hey did not yet prosper!” They were still dependent. They were still confused. They were still in a new place, essentially alone among likeminded people.

“This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than what it really was. That happened, don’t misunderstand. That all happened, but that’s not — according to William Bradford’s journal — what they ultimately gave thanks for. “Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract” that they made on the Mayflower as they were traveling to the New World…

They actually had to enter into that contract “with their merchant-sponsors in London,” because they had no money on their own. The needed sponsor. They found merchants in London to sponsor them. The merchants in London were making an investment, and as such, the Pilgrims agreed that “everything they produced to go into a common store,” or bank, common account, “and each member of the community was entitled to one common share” in this bank. Out of this, the merchants would be repaid until they were paid off.

“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.” Everything belonged to everybody and everybody had one share in it. They were going to distribute it equally.” That was considered to be the epitome of fairness, sharing the hardship burdens and everything like that. “Nobody owned anything. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California,” and other parts of the country, “and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.

“Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that” it wasn’t working. It “was as costly and destructive…” His own journals chronicle the reasons it didn’t work. “Bradford assigned a plot of land” to fix this “to each family to work and manage,” as their own. He got rid of the whole commune structure and “assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage,” and whatever they made, however much they made, was theirs. They could sell it, they could share it, they could keep it, whatever they wanted to do.

What really happened is they “turned loose” the power of a free market after enduring months and months of hardship — first on the Mayflower and then getting settled and then the failure of the common account from which everybody got the same share. There was no incentive for anybody to do anything. And as is human nature, some of the Pilgrims were a bunch of lazy twerps, and others busted their rear ends. But it didn’t matter because even the people that weren’t very industrious got the same as everyone else. Bradford wrote about how this just wasn’t working.

“What Bradford and his community found,” and I’m going to use basically his own words, “was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else… [W]hile most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years — trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it — the Pilgrims decided early on,” William Bradford decided, “to scrap it permanently,” because it brought out the worst in human nature, it emphasized laziness, it created resentment.

Because in every group of people you’ve got your self-starters you’ve got your hard workers and your industrious people, and you’ve got your lazy twerps and so forth, and there was no difference at the end of the day. The resentment sprang up on both sides. So Bradford wrote about this. “‘For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.

“For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense,’” without any payment, “‘that was thought injustice.’ Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? What’s the point? … The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive.

“So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? ‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands [everybody] industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ …

“Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s. … In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves. Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you’re laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.

“And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’” The word of the success of the free enterprise Plymouth Colony spread like wildfire and that began the great migration. Everybody wanted a part of it. There was no mass slaughtering of the Indians. There was no wiping out of the indigenous people, and eventually — in William Bradford’s own journal — unleashing the industriousness of all hands ended up producing more than they could ever need themselves.

So trading post began selling and exchanging things with the Indians — and the Indians, by the way, were very helpful. Puritan kids had relationships with the children of the Native Americans that they found. This killing the indigenous people stuff, they’re talking about much, much, much, much later. It has nothing to do with the first thanksgiving.

The first Thanksgiving was William Bradford and Plymouth Colony thanking God for their blessings. That’s the first Thanksgiving. Nothing wrong with being grateful to the Indians; don’t misunderstand. But the true meaning of Thanksgiving — and this is what George Washington recognized in his first Thanksgiving proclamation.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Thank you for being with us today, folks. Have a great rest of the Thanksgiving weekend. And know without doubt how truly thankful for you I personally am and all of us are. Never forget it. Can’t say it enough that we love you. See you back here on Monday. We will be here.

The post The Story of Thanksgiving – Only As Rush Limbaugh Could Tell it. appeared first on Granite Grok.

If you are looking for a Thanksgiving tradition you’d like to forget, we’ve got some, and yes, we’re here (like every year) to remind you. The Left has released its annual cheat sheet, and this year it comes from the White House, and it’s nothing but gaslighting.

And yes, they lead off with “tackling inflation and lowering costs.”

 

Sitting next to your Uncle at Thanksgiving? Need a cheat sheet on the President’s accomplishments? We got you covered. pic.twitter.com/ElXuLEJbmu

— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) November 23, 2022

Took on Big Pharma .. a fully funded department of the US Government, perhaps. The rest is no better. But the wingnuts might come to dinner so armed, so be prepared … to laugh in their face.

Don’t say anything. Just laugh. Chortle. Snicker. And make sure you smile and shake your head a bit. And make sure someone knows CPR. The odds are good the Prog will choke on their food. The only tragedy on Thanksgiving should be the death of their talking points.

 

Nostalgia: A roundup of my take on Lib talking points from previous years.

2021: It’s Thanksgiving so Let’s Talk About – COVID19!

2021: Decolonizing Thanksgiving: A Toolkit for Combatting Racism in Schools.”

2017 Democrat Thanksgiving Talking Points

2014: Instead of the DCCC Annual Let’s Ruin Thanksgiving Flyer…

2013: Organizing For Acorn Squash Takes Over Democrat’s “Ruining Thanksgiving Tradition”

2013: Scratch That! The DCCC Is Still Going To Do Its Part To Ruin Thanksgiving

2011: DCCC Annual “Ruin Thanksgiving” Cheat Sheet

2010: DCCC Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet

We seem to have missed a few years, or, more likely, I could not find them because of our crappy search engine (yes, it’s on the list of things to update).

 

Here are a few more that go the other way (and a lot more of those here).

Did You Decolonize Your Thanksgiving? (How about Decolonizing THIS, Instead?)

Pilgrims, Indigenous Peoples, And Progressive Reprogramming on Thanksgiving

By the way – Thanksgiving isn’t Racist Oppression. It Isn’t Even Cultural Appropriation

Where A Privileged Dartmouth Student Hates On Thanksgiving

 

The post Democrats Want You to Ruin Thanksgiving with Biden’s Accomplishments appeared first on Granite Grok.

Updates below.

I like reading John Stossel as often he proclaims a down to earth message with common sense appeal.  In addition, what he talks about is grounded in results rather then an ideological background.  When I saw his column, so apropo for today, it does need to be reviewed.

Why?  Allow me to inject a bit of what some might consider politics on a day given over for other-than-politics.  The lesson learned by the Pilgrims is one that we should be paying close attention to, as we are looking to select a new leader, just as the Pilgrims selected Bradford as their new leader. I see the Democratic candidates all running to socialistic tendancies more and more – think “it takes a village” on steroids.  Yet, given history’s results on “the common good” and the hatred that seems to be simmering on the Left for capitalism, sometimes we do need to pay attention to what history tells us of certain choices and actions, lest we repeat them over and over….

Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. “Isn’t sharing wonderful?” say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn’t happen.

The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. The earliest European settlers in America had a dramatic demonstration of that lesson, but few people today know it.

When the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth Colony, they organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share everything equally, work and produce.

They nearly all starved.

Why?

When people can get the same return with a small amount of effort as with a large amount, most people will make little effort. Plymouth settlers faked illness rather than working the common property. Some even stole, despite their Puritan convictions. Total production was too meager to support the population, and famine resulted. Some ate rats, dogs, horses and cats. This went on for two years.

“So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented,” wrote Gov. William Bradford in his diary. The colonists, he said, “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, [I] (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. … And so assigned to every family a parcel of land.”

The people of Plymouth moved from socialism to private farming. The results were dramatic.

“This had very good success,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. … By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. … ”

Because of the change, the first Thanksgiving could be held in November 1623.

What Plymouth suffered under communalism was what economists today call the tragedy of the commons. But the problem has been known since ancient Greece. As Aristotle noted, “That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.”

When action is divorced from consequences, no one is happy with the ultimate outcome. If individuals can take from a common pot regardless of how much they put in it, each person has an incentive to be a free rider, to do as little as possible and take as much as possible because what one fails to take will be taken by someone else. Soon, the pot is empty and will not be refilled — a bad situation even for the earlier takers.

What private property does — as the Pilgrims discovered — is connect effort to reward, creating an incentive for people to produce far more. Then, if there’s a free market, people will trade their surpluses to others for the things they lack. Mutual exchange for mutual benefit makes the community richer.

Secure property rights are the key. When producers know that their future products are safe from confiscation, they will take risks and invest. But when they fear they will be deprived of the fruits of their labor, they will do as little as possible.

That’s the lost lesson of Thanksgiving.

And yet with this history lesson, Santayana’s aphorism still holds true – it is to our Country’s demise that many have not heeded the object lesson above concerning human nature as once again they feel that they are The Ones to successfully implement Socialism where none have ever succeeded before them.

(reposted from 11/22/07, 11/22/2009, 11/22/2012, 11/28/2013, 11/17/2014, 11/23/17, 11/28/18, – as we drift further towards the Obama / Progressive Collective, the more we need to know that it didn’t work for the Pilgrims, it didn’t work in all of the Communist / Fascist countries last century, and it isn’t working this century (e.g., Venezuela).   While many on the Right are looking for the next Reagan (without realizing they must be their own Reagan), the Left is constantly looking for the “right people” to implement socialism correctly – and DO keep looking at themselves).

Update: And now post-Obama, we have the Donald Trump era.  While he’s been at the helm for only 10 months, it is clear that he is moving us from the Obama Statist / Socialist path back to our origins – and the economy is responding.  Will it continue?  Dunno – only time will tell.  What is happening is that he and his Administration are working to move the Government from driving the economy to one more where WE determine our economy.  Let’s see if I think the same thing next year.

Update: And now, we’ve had a couple of years of the Trump era now and yes, the economy has responded to the lifting of regulations and taxes from it.  We’ve got more Americans back at work than ever before and we have an economy that is the envy of the world.  Is everything alright?  Certainly not – but let’s take this day to give thanks for what the Good Lord has given us.  It’s been a rough year here at Chez Murphy but along with the downs, there’s been the up’s as well. A roof over our heads, food in our bellies, clothes on our backs – the necessities of life have been provided.  TMEW and I have the Grandson legally and what a blessing he has been this past year! For all of the adversity we’ve faced, that spotlight, that beacon of ours, continues to shine brightly every time he smiles and giggles at us.

Update: And the gauzy white promises of this Democrat Presidential Campaign (2019/2020) that Government can give you EVERYTHING as long as you let it be in control of your life, the promises will be just as workable as the socialism that the Pilgrims started with – just with the disaster at a scale those folks could never imagine. As they try to “out Left” each other to the brink of full Socialism, they refuse to see its failure even here in America.  Time to gird our loins and support those that would have nothing to do with this!

While we do complain a lot here at the ‘Grok at how the culture degrades along with our politicians, I am thankful for what we have been given.  May we all be thankful to God for all of His blessings.

Update: two years into President Asterisk’s Administration (that would be Biden and his Socialist Obama retreads), there is little to be thankful for. After two years of the Progressive Dems Trifecta (US House, Senate, and Oval Office), inflation is high, Afghanistan ended badly (and WE are paying the TALIBAN tribute to still get our folks out of there), COVID Kings (like NH Gov Sununu) trampled on State and US Constitutions), and the expected move by Biden for Govt in supplying more and more “free stuff” is picking up speed. And, oh yeah, they believe they have subjects to micromanage their lives instead of citizens that happen to have a govt. National debt just hit $31 Trillion.

The post A lesson from the First Thanksgiving appeared first on Granite Grok.

I think we are cynical people by nature. We believe in the worst because we are constantly bombarded by bad news. The old adage “if it bleeds, it leads” has never had more meaning.

Cynical is not a healthy state of mind, and we need to pull away from that which feeds it. That is why I developed my Sunday Spotlight. It is my way of shutting out the negatives for a day and giving thanks to someone who positively impacts the world.

We definitely have many challenges in our lives, and some days it feels like the world is spinning out of control. Sometimes it seems like God is seeing just how much we can take before the final straw. But we persevere and find a way through, and usually, we are ready the next day to repeat the process. It is the start of that next day that I find so important.

Sunrise has always been my favorite time of the day. But last year was the first that we spent at our cabin in Maine. We had not realized how fortunate we are that the cabin faces the east Every morning, we are blessed with an incredible sunrise while still lying in our bed. Some mornings I will get up at three while it is still pitch dark. I’ll enjoy the quiet broken only by the calls of the loons, and I will write with one eye watching the east. I am often rewarded with the most extraordinary spectacle as Mother Nature begins her work, the eastern sky her palette, and she paints a magnificent sunrise to awaken us to a new day, a new beginning. I always find myself in awe of her work, but I also take this time to say thanks for all the good things and blessings we enjoy. I realize at this moment that we far too often overlook all the good in our lives.

Today may be our official day to give thanks, but for me, every day is Thanksgiving. From the first breath of the day, we enjoy life, which is enough to be thankful. There is no guarantee that we will make it through the next trip around the sun or even the next time the moon circles our earth. We will experience loss and new life as that is our circle of life. We have no control over the size of the circle, but we do over how we fill it.

I have so much to be thankful for in my life. My health, a loving, beautiful, generous partner, and our two dogs, who bring smiles to our lives, are just the start. Our wonderful family, friends, and the kids I pick up and deliver to school each day on my big yellow bus. And especially our pond buddies. These are the folks who make the Pond the magical place we love. Every day we may meet them on our morning coffee ride on the pontoon or at night for cocktails and dinner. We seem to end up at a different camp at the end of the day, and we all bring something for dinner. It is like our own little Thanksgiving meal each day. We light a fire and sit, talk, and enjoy the company. And we celebrate the end of a wondrous day.

As the fire burns, I look to the east and hope and pray that Mother Nature is already working on her next masterpiece. It is a beautiful life; everyone has their version if you take the time to find it. I hope that this Thanksgiving, you will find your reasons to give thanks.

The post Challenges, Yes, But Plenty to be Thankful For appeared first on Granite Grok.

Progressives – always the buzz-killers. All the time we hear from comedians that Progressives are killing comedy especially if they tell a joke or a story that goes against a Woke Narrative.  Say the wrong thing and get canceled.  Get hounded out of your life. Tossed to the curb to lay in the gutter.

So, I have steeled myself, I’ve manned up, girded my loins, inventoried the armory, and have readied myself for any incoming from the Transgender activists…

Check engine light – perfect!

If you don’t hear from me for a couple of days, you’ll know what came for me.

What am I saying? If they identify as girls, they hit like girls, right?

There you go, Skip – get the Feminists after yourself as well.  Good going, dude.

Hey, just chill – just trying my best to bring a bit of comedy back to Society. How am I doing?

Heh!

BONUS:

(H/T: Powerline)

The post Palate Cleanser – C’mon Man, It’s FUNNY! appeared first on Granite Grok.

Twelve years ago, on November 22nd, someone released emails revealing communications between leading “scientists” on Global Warming. The interactions were not only not flattering, they were damning. The experts were manipulating data and suppressing debate.

Related: A timeline for ClimateGate

 

It has been 12 years since the intellectual scandal erupted called Climategate. Each anniversary inspires recollections and regurgitation of salient quotations. These quotations speak for themselves; attempts of climate alarmists to parse the words and meaning distracts from what was said in real-time private conversations.

And the scandal got worse after the fact when, according to Paul Stephens, “virtually the entire climate science community tried to pretend that nothing was wrong.” Whitewash exonerations by the educational institutions involved and scientific organizations– was a blow to scholarship and standards as well. The standard of fair, objective, transparent research was sacrificed to a politically correct narrative about the qualitative connection between CO2 forcing and temperature (see Wiki).

 

WUWT has more, including some of the better quotes culled from the mountain, of which my favorite might be,

“I’ve just completed Mike’s [Mann] Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e. from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s [Briffa] to hide the decline.”

—Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Nov. 16, 1999.

And,

“I can’t see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow, even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!”

—Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, July 8, 2004.

It was a coordinated effort (conspiracy/fraud) to prevent science from happening and to control the narrative. But it’s more than that. Billions, nay Trillions of dollars, were at stake. If the fraud could be sustained, the people censoring scientific research in defense of Mann-Made global warming would continue to benefit financially, as would a range of politicians, their oligarchic crony-capitalist buddies, and anyone connected to them.

And before the rise of COVID-19, it was easily the single most significant (potential) RICO case in history, one that continues this week at COP27, where they are binding nations the decades along money-laundering operations using not just your hard-earned wages but those of generations not born who will be made to pay the debt and the interest on it.

And we’ve made considerable advances in demonstrating the fraud, but here we are, watching them institutionalize the funding of the same lie over a decade later.

I’d say it’s disappointing, but the fault is not ours. The party in which we’ve had to place our faith to push back has gotten on the same train (more or less). From big corn to so-called renewables, Republicans are increasingly led by their donor nose-rings to play along.

The only man who made any real effort to dial it back was Donald Trump, and you see what they did and are trying to do to him.

No debate, no science, just fear and political terrorism against anyone who tries to close the laundromat.

We need to do better.

 

 

The post ICYMI (I Did!)- Yesterday Was the 12th Anniversary of ‘Climategate.’ appeared first on Granite Grok.

This week in the US we have heard of a plethora of shootings, stabbings, and fires. That’s combined with incessant talk of a build-up toward war with Russia or China, and news that the dollar will collapse.

And since we have just had an election season, there have been fights over who won and all the related chicanery. Don’t forget the new SADS — “sudden adult death syndrome” — where you simply drop dead on the floor.

To the average citizen, this may seem like an accumulation of separate difficulties. The pile-up of them is now becoming almost too much to bear. Or to put it another way, even for folks who don’t specifically concentrate on any of the aforementioned problems, the quality of life “all around” has been lowered.

Ask: Where is the joy of community if television gives us a steady stream of murder stories or housefires? Where is the joy of thinking of our kids’ future when we hear that 42% of them now have “mental health issues”? Where are artistry and intellectual life if there is no venue for such things?

In this article, I argue that the pile-up of sad events is not accidental; it’s deliberately planned. Indeed it isn’t really a pile-up; it’s a full design, as in a tapestry. Even if such an argument sounds ridiculous, I ask you to try picturing someone, somewhere, holding a veritable agenda — to lower the quality of human life and to make many of us see our lot as unbearable.

Such an agenda needs a name. I hesitate to employ the word “tapestry” as a tapestry is a beautiful thing. I’ll call it a “blanketry,” for now. For different folks, the blanketry may have different strokes, but in general, it means that the whole community suffers a decline in joy. The dark blanket that has fallen on us makes us think things will never get better and everyone is doomed.

Who would create such a blanket? Is it even conceivable that someone would try to bring down the tone of a whole society? First, try answering that in the negative. “No — such persons don’t exist” — the various sufferings (e.g., corrupt elections or an outbreak of arson) have ordinary explanations, same as in the past. The fact that they’re coming all at once might merely reflect a developing culture of lawlessness.

I agree that a culture of lawlessness can instigate criminal activity since the bad guys would no longer fear arrest. They could let themselves go free, doing shootouts if they are young men, or accepting bribes if they are bored old bureaucrats. But what is making law enforcers agree to the lawlessness? Their personnel — particularly in the courts — have always prided themselves on bringing justice. Why would they suddenly change their tune?

Again, there could be an ordinary explanation. Individual cops, prosecutors, and judges may start to think it’s no longer cool to act as in days of old. They may notice that recent grads of law school have not even been taught the ideals of law, aiming instead for winning the legal game against competitors.

Granted, people of high principle tend to be less conformist than their neighbors, but if they now find themselves unable to share the high principles, they may just give up trying. Morality is a shared thing. (Some religious people believe they can do the morally right thing as a loner, by having companionship with God, but their understanding of God came about socially.)

Examining the Blanket’s Designer via Mind Control

That said, I think the new lawlessness and the new unhappiness are “of a piece” and was designed on a drawing board. I am calling it a blanket to enable the examination of it.

For the last 17 years, I’ve been engaged in contemplating the MK-Ultra program of the CIA. That has made me swallow the unpleasant (and counterintuitive) truth that some humans will do anything to hurt their fellow man. (Note: although I say it is CIA based, it is more likely based in the UK’s psychology organization known as Tavistock.)

I’ll give a short list of what may happen to an MK-Ultra girl. This is a miscellaneous collection of tortures; each person does not receive all of them. There may be many other tortures that I omit:

1. Before birth, her pregnant mother may be given an electric shock to the womb.
2. Shortly after birth, the baby may find a phallus in her mouth (excuse me for being graphic).
3. As a child, she may constantly hear her mother say “I don’t love you. You are ugly.”
4. She is made to watch other children being killed.
5. She is taken on trips, e.g., to have sex with politicians, and then given a drug (or a tasering) to make her forget.
6. She is trained to stab people to death and may in fact do so.
7. Her handler dislocates her shoulder, exactly at the moment of orgasm, so she will confuse pain and pleasure.
8. When she is too old to be useful (perhaps age 35) she is given a suicide date, and is hypnotized to believe it will be a glorious experience (e.g., flying out the window).
9. She is made to feel anger and then is taught to suppress it (or face horrible punishment).
10. She is forced to kill her beloved dog or amputate the feet of her beloved cat.

As I said, that is a miscellaneous list. The experts have learned how the mind works and how they can control individuals, even making them act against their own interests. As far as I know, many mind-control techniques existed in the past in many cultures. These ones were developed in a formal way.

I neglected to mention control by drugging (remember the psychiatric wards to which political dissidents in the USSR were sent?). I did not mention the forming of cults, but these are a way to teach a whole group to be obedient. I did hint at the breaking of the mother-child bond, which was a specific project developed by psychiatrists at Harvard in the early 1900s.

Just the name Harvard reminds us that many prestigious universities and highly regarded doctors were in on this stuff. I don’t rule out that they themselves had undergone some form of mind control in order to be willing to behave so sadistically.

As with many outrageous public figures today — Fauci and Gates come to mind — it is easy to argue that their behaviors may have been elicited by greed; both of them profit monetarily from their wicked acts. But at least some of the players are motivated by means other than money. Many probably do it “for the power trip.” Some may do it because they have accepted “the teachings of Satan.” Some may have been born into it as the family norm.

Examining the Blanket’s Designer via Experience in War

This article is about what I see as a blanketing of the US domestic population with some sort of bad feeling, be it worry or hate, or hopelessness. I listed above, some ways in which a formal CIA program actually honed our government’s skills in that area. But today, the full blanketing involves, additionally, the physical disasters I referred to at the beginning: shootings, stabbings, fires, war preparation, election cheating, and SADS.

Remember, it’s my claim that the whole thing was worked out on a drawing board. I have no proof of that. I can only show that it is possible for human beings to do such a thing. So now, having said that it is definitely done on a small scale to MK-Ultra victims, I will provide a list of awful things that we do “wholesale” to entire countries. Again, my list will be miscellaneous:

1. We pretend that we are aiming at military targets while we knowingly aim at civilians.
(Note: the “we” I am using could mean any nation, not just the US.)
2. We use bioweapons to spread epidemics.
3. We meddle with a country’s economy, by sanctions, debt-creation, or sabotage.
4. We invariably manipulate elections, through misinformation, bribery or propaganda.
5. We create weather disasters and the consequent crop failures.
6. We commit atrocities and blame someone else — that is, we do false-flag operations.
7. We insert our personnel as spies and agents provocateurs.
8. We poison the environment with chemicals or radiation or vermin.
9. We assassinate an official or kill off a beloved social leader, to create humiliation or despair.
10. We encourage divisiveness by stirring up any opposing groups such as Christians versus Muslims.

There is no need for me to persuade the reader that a human being can do such things, as we do it admittedly and gloriously. “Congratulations to our brilliant military for producing floods in Vietnam which helped thwart the movement of the Viet Cong.” I note that several of the ten items are written up as crimes in international law — but that goes to show you what a fake deal international law is. (See my 1990 book, “Morality among Nations.”)

Fact is, all humans are equipped with a dual moral system. As Reinhold Niebuhr wrote in 1932, we are moral within our society, and simultaneously we are, as a nation (or lesser group), immoral to our opponent. In war, you don’t hold back — whatever does the job of defeating an enemy is OK. Yet most folks think of themselves as having only one consistent moral practice!

All that it would take, therefore, is for the blanketers to fiddle with their mind a little bit, to see us — the general population — as the enemy. In fact they do so, and have said so.

To add to their ease of hurting us, there is also the excitement of competition and conquest. Once you’ve seen a way to achieve something — as when our overlords see how easily they can bamboozle us through the press — you’d feel silly holding back. Discovery has its own dynamic.

So, Who Are the Blanketers?

Assuming the reader agrees that America is being hit with bad stuff, and is willing to venture a guess that it is a coordinated, deliberate blanketing, who is the coordinator? And what is the real motive?

I’m going to go for Occam’s razor here. William of Ockham, circa 1300, said the explanation with the fewest parts may be the right one. I honestly think the motive behind the jaw-dropping selfishness and meanness of the men at the top, is their ordinary selfishness (desire to survive), complicated by the hierarchical structure of human society whereby they have become alphas and need to kill all challengers.

To date I have never been able to persuade any of my friends of this. Because the whole thing looks so esoteric, folks can’t see it for what it is. I owe my insight (if it’s correct) to my years of studying sociobiology. As to the reason why we are seeing it now, and not before in history, I think it is because the top dogs have better means of pulling it off. Their weapons are tremendous.

Also, thanks to mind-control technique, they have perhaps converted millions of people to be their guards. At the moment, in US society, one can’t get anywhere by seeking help from the old familiar helpers: bishops, journalists, doctors, academics, judges, cops. Someone has somehow managed to shut down the moral instincts, and the truth-seeking instincts of most of those professionals. They are acting like zombies.

Getting Out of This Mess

I am trying to share the perspective that the blanketing is coordinated and that its truly ridiculous energizer is the selfishness of a tiny group at the top.
I hope this will cause some people to be less afraid of the bosses. I also hope (go on, tell me I’m a fool for this) that the big picture should prompt us to see that a national society — or possibly the whole species — is a unity. We can’t just fix things piecemeal.

I also hope (go on, tell me I’m a mental case) that the jerks at the top will figure out that they, too, got trapped.
And they really should come forward and ask for mercy. Especially on Thanksgiving.

Before God’s bountiful earth deteriorates to such an extent that there is nothing left to give thanks for.

 

The post Some Humans Will Do Anything To Hurt Their Fellow Man appeared first on Granite Grok.

Remember, warning shots at an aggressor might be used against you. Ammo is still not cheap, and getting killed yourself is worse. This example might be helpful in your future (reformatted, emphasis mine):

‘Don’t stop shooting until they’re down’: Homeowner says he ‘did the right thing’ when he fired at intruder who kicked in his door. Intruder died at scene

…The homeowner noted to KOCO that the intruder was looking for his ex-girlfriend and trying to get inside the home. What was going through his mind while the break-in was taking place? “Distance,” the homeowner told the station. “Don’t stop shooting until they’re down and even then, watch ’em because people play possum.”

The homeowner added to KOCO that the intruder had dropped off a friend there. “She had him drop her off here, and then she blocked him the next morning, and he decided to come over here because this is the last place that he knew she was,” the homeowner recounted to the station. The homeowner told KOCO that he used a security camera to watch the man on the porch of his home and asked him to leave.

Instead, the man got something out of his truck and returned to the door, the station said. “I was right up against the door looking out as I saw his back and his frame, and then I started to back up,” the homeowner told KOCO. “He kicked the door in. It hit me in the face. I pushed it back up against him, backed up and continued to back up.” He added to the station that he didn’t begin firing “until I saw his feet come in over my doorway.”

A next-door neighbor recounted to KFOR that he heard “pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. I mean, just, you know, as quick as someone could squeeze the trigger. I mean, it happened so fast … I walked outside and could smell gunpowder right away.”

The intruder was pronounced dead at the scene in the 3000 block of Westbrook Street in Chickasha, which is about 40 minutes southwest of Oklahoma City.

Yet another Darwin Award winner…

 

(H/T: The Blaze)

The post Second Amendment Happy Ending of the Day – Don’t Stop Shooting Until the Threat Is Neutralized appeared first on Granite Grok.

I know the Left thinks it has a monopoly on mobs (sorry, peaceful protests), but the Public Health Industrial Complex in The Dominion is escalating the war on bodily autonomy, which means it’s out there and could be here sooner than we think.

“So this has come out recently out of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The college sent out a letter or a memo to all the doctors in Ontario suggesting to them now, so far, they’re not mandating it, they’re just suggesting it, that any of their unvaccinated patients, that they should consider that they have a mental problem and that they should be put on psychiatric medication. So far, it’s just a suggestion… “

 

Bombshell Video: Dr. William Makis states that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is suggesting to Ontario doctors that “unvaccinated” people are mentally ill and in need of psychiatric medication.

Makis: “That is a very dangerous slippery slope that we’re on.” pic.twitter.com/nWlC6Ei06X

— Paul Mitchell (@PaulMitchell_AB) November 19, 2022

 

Anyone surprised? Anyone? Not me. And don’t be surprised when the Vaccine Extremists on the Fascist Left insists that this makes perfect sense. But it’s still not the last step.

How do you make someone who refuses to get an experimental drug they don’t want or need to take psychiatric medicines they neither want nor need? You can’t unless you declare them mentally unfit and confine them. At that point, The State could force treatment upon whomever they chose using whatever drugs they decided you need, including their vaccine.

Is this what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario intends? Is that the goal? Anyone who disagrees with the government and its cadre of complicit whitecoats gets a trip to the sanatorium until their head is where they need it.

And those who resist or to whom the reprogramming does not take? Do they just die suddenly?

We’re on dangerous ground here, people.

 

HT | Lew Rockwell.com

The post Progressive Medicine: If You Refuse “The Vaccine” You Should Be Treated with Drugs for Mental Illness … appeared first on Granite Grok.

Our elected representatives are supposed to represent the people who elect them. There will certainly be times when our elected representatives vote, or do not share our views on an issue. I think we all know how that works. But what happens when those you elect, decide that they do not want to hear from you.  

Erika Cohen seems to be taking her role as Derry School Board Chair to a new level.

As someone who frequently testifies before the New Hampshire House and Senate Education Committees, I found Cohen’s behavior at a recent school board meeting appalling. Granted the Chinese might welcome this kind of behavior from their comrades, in a free society where we elect our representatives to serve us, her behavior is appalling.

First parents must sit there for hours waiting to speak. They also have a foolish policy that says those who choose to sit there and speak, can only speak to items that are on the agenda. Nothing like limiting the speech from the public!

The courts have ruled that speakers can be limited on time and subject matter. However, those limits normally apply to someone who decides to get up and speak about subjects that have nothing to do with the school system. For instance, if a resident wanted to talk about the war between Ukraine and Russia, everyone would expect the Chair to limit those comments. But what about parents and residents who want to share their concerns about what is happening in the school? Erika Cohen has made it clear, she will only entertain topics that are either on the agenda, or topics she happens to like.

https://livestream.com/dcsdmedia/events/10683657/videos/233785829?fbclid=IwAR0pUdjThrKyTV8WX86N0zYETfpYFi90tWMdiPWbM9IPdkOYjl7WDlmIgUI

If you fast forward to 2:35:46, you will hear an exchange between a parent in Derry and the Board Chair. The parent brought a few topics to the Board, but when he addressed the abortion poster that was placed on the wall of the school recently. Cohen then shut down his comments. She said since the abortion poster wasn’t on the agenda, he could not speak about it. He then reminded her that he has asked that it be placed on the agenda, but that request was rejected too.  It seems like the good Comrade has made it impossible for this parent to ever bring his concerns to the school board.

 

 

I understand that some of these issues are not easy to hear about, but this parent was calm, respectful and wanted to be heard. One would expect parents to share their concerns during the school board meeting, but not under her watch. Who came up with this foolish policy to begin with? This policy should be reversed immediately. It restricts the free speech from those who pay taxes to run this school. Why run for the school board if you don’t want to hear about concerns from the community? Board members are there to serve their constituents.

Brenda Willis, who also serves on the board, was the only one with enough courage to assist the parent in an effort to hear his concerns. Public comments made during a school board meeting are the best way for parents and community members to address their concerns in a way that will result in action. But if you can’t share those concerns, how can anything get resolved?

One would think that a concerned and respectful parent in the community would be treated with a certain level of respect. The policy itself is disrespectful to the people paying taxes in Derry. To then pick and choose what concerns a parent can bring to the school board, tells the community that the Board Chair is going to dictate who is allowed to share their concerns about what is going on in the school, and who is not. They don’t care if you have concerns about how your money is being spent. So much for supporting and respecting the democratic process.

The message is clear to the taxpayers in Derry, pay your taxes but keep your mouth shut.

I would personally contact an attorney to talk about free speech rights during these public meetings. Based on court rulings, judges tend to side with the public when it comes to their objections to their speech being limited.  But that will take money out of the pocket of parents, so they tend to walk away frustrated and angry. The Board Chair will use taxpayer funded attorneys to defend the district if they are sued, taking advantage of the taxpayers in the community. It’s no wonder they act like tyrants instead of representatives.

I’d suggest that the Board Chair take a trip to Concord, and watch how our State officials conduct public meetings.  Learn some decorum and respect for the public who took their time to address the committees. For those who do not want to listen to the concerns from parents and residents, maybe you shouldn’t have run for office in the first place.

The post The Comrade Running the Derry School Board Meetings appeared first on Granite Grok.

As I said in my earlier post (“The Biden Administration Is about to Add a $6/Gallon Tax When You Fill Up Your Car“), the Biden EPA mavens want to arbitrarily jerk your energy (For each and every energy source you utilize) from a tax of $1/ton to upwards of $190/ton. It IS (after all) their mission to save the planet.

Emphasis mine:

One of the great ironies of climate change activism today is that many of the movement’s most vocal proponents are also horrified by global income inequality. They are blind, however, to the fact that the costs of the policies they demand will be borne disproportionately by the world’s poorest. This is because so much of climate change policy boils down to limiting access to cheap energy.  -Bjorn Lomborg

The problem is, who is going to save the poor from these self-indulgent pooh-bahs that are convinced that they are the world’s best gift to the rest of us? Certainly, not those about to be sentenced to a subsistence standard of living while the rest of us are reduced to peasant status. And not, those that will be beaming with pride that they made themselves proud by making others miserable.

Actually, just made that up – they’re not proud at all. How can they be as they don’t care? Not a whit. Their greater purpose outweighs any collateral damage they may be causing.

And in 2024, never forget that the collateral damage is you. That is if you last that long. Heat or eat?  They don’t care if it’s both. Not even a dollop of empathy.

Can we just air-drop them into an active volcano so we can incinerate their carbon in a flash? And that would mean we’d be left alone?

 

 

HT | False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor and Fails to Fix the Planet

The post Progressives Have No to Little Concept That Changing a System Here Necessarily Means Changes Will Occur There and There And… appeared first on Granite Grok.

As promised in the last Monday Memes, I have an overflow. My meme cup runneth over.  I will probably take a break on Friday so see you on Monday for more memes.  Survival Sunday still in progress and on track.  (Link is to the most recent prep post.)

Now, let the mayhem, mockery, and ridicule resume:

*** Warning, a few possibly off-color ones, in case tender eyes are about ***

 

Adding this:

 

 

It’s actually still up and running!

Home | Trump Winery

Stock up for Christmas / Chanukah too!

 

>>>>>=====<<<<<

 

 

Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

What’s great about these videos is not that he convinces people necessarily, but rather he piques their interest to do some digging themselves.  Doubtless many will furiously start searching to prove this man-on-the-street wrong.  And what they’ll find… ?

 

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I truly hope that Satan appoints the men killed in Benghazi to be her tormentors.  They can commute daily from their home in Heaven.

 

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If we ended fossil fuels, they have NO IDEA of the society we’d have.  Think 18th century.  Where are they going to get their half-caf almond-infused soy milk for their Starbucks then?

 

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This. Is. Priceless.

Had a conversation with a Covid tyranny apologist the other day who was weepy and “We couldn’t have known”… I asked “Then how did I know”?

If looks could kill I’d not be typing now.  And the psychology is interesting.  You see, these people TRULY BELIEVE they are made from finer clay.  Smarter, more educated, more noble, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.  They have nothing but disdain for our side.  For me to point out that I, as one of the unwashed deplorables, was more observant, smarter, better informed, etc., is a blow to their ego that threatened their entire view of themselves as better.  As “died suddenly” becomes a thing in their world, to the point where it cannot be denied, that hatred will do nothing but grow.

World Premiere: Died Suddenly (rumble.com)

70 minute video.  Nobody who watches this all the way through cannot NOT be scared for what’s coming… for themselves, friends, and/or family.

I’m worried for my double-Jabbed and boosted (at least once) wife.  Multiple relatives including my sister.  Friends.  And… there are a few Covidians in my known-to-me-personally circle whose death-spiral passing will be greeted with somber tones on the outside, and I’ll doubtless say this:

Outwardly: One should only speak good of the dead.  <Silence>

The quiet part: OK.  They’re dead?  Good.

Going to have to make sure mouth is firmly shut so I don’t say the quiet part out loud.  Yes, sometimes I’m a vindictive and nasty SOB.

 

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Pick of the post:

 

 

Remember, the WEF and the powers in / behind it have been slowly-slowly planning for at least a century.

 

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Palate cleansers:

 

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Meme Overflow appeared first on Granite Grok.

I had an interesting experience this week that challenged me as a Conservative. It was noteworthy because I have always thought of myself as not close to the center, but when I had a blog twenty years ago, my tagline was “there is no room to my right.”

I am so committed to my Conservative and traditional ideals that I have sacrificed many friendships and relationships. Losing people in my circle was difficult, but compromising myself would have been more challenging. To have my position challenged this week was harsh and confusing. It made me question the very definition of the term.

Two labels that I have little use for are Libertarian and Independent. Libertarians believe that we can exist without any form of government. This belief is nearly impossible as a central government is essential for specific components of our life that, without, would result in anarchy. National security, a police force, a monetary system, infrastructure for travel, and control of who enters our country are but a few things that we must rely on a central government. That does not mean the central government has unfettered power but should be constrained by the people. An independent, in my view, is someone afraid to acknowledge an alignment to one side or the other. The political arena in America is so diametrically opposed that being neutral is illogical. To live in the middle is more of an indication of ignorance of the issues or the inability to formulate a position than a legitimate political ideology.

I will not define a Progressive, for I think that is a fluid stand. I see Progressives as people constantly searching for more creative ways that the government can provide for every need in life. Progressives are highly dependent individuals. Conservatives or Conservatism is easier to define and understand. Big “C” Conservatives believe in limited central government. We believe in local control, thus our love of the Republic versus a Democracy. We have an opportunity in America to decide where we want to live based on geography and ideology and still be proud Americans. My own life experience is an example. Born and raised in Massachusetts, I was expected to be a Democrat. It was a birthright of being born in the Commonwealth. As I grew and learned, that expectation did not work for me, and when I got married and started a family, we headed to the Granite State. Forty years ago, New Hampshire was a beautiful state rich in natural wonder and very Red and Conservative. New Hampshire in the 80s was where I was meant to be.

I live in a small town on the seacoast with a population of about 12,000. Doing some research on the town website, I was surprised to see more voters registered as unaligned than Democrat and Republican voters combined. If Conservatives are ever to be successful in winning an election in this town, we must reach out to the unaligned to join our ranks. If we choose to isolate ourselves and not communicate with anyone identifying as non-Conservative, then we do so at our peril, as the numbers are not in our favor.

When I published my Sunday Spotlight this week about Kevin Costner, I was accused of touching the third rail. I hope the person who said this, and I look forward to his comments on my articles, did not mean it in such a drastic manner. I can take the criticism as I have thick skin, but we cannot have this thinking and flourish as Conservatives. We are enjoying a swing back from the Radical Left. I hope we do not push the pendulum away by saying nobody left of center is welcome on our side of center.

I took some of the same fire months ago when I wrote about Tulsi Gabbard. I predicted at the time that she would cross the aisle. Though she has not declared herself a Republican, she has dissolved her association with the Democrat Party. Take a minute to listen to her podcast, and you will hear the voice of reason and Conservativism. It would have been a shame to slam the door and tell Tulsi she was not welcome in our tent. We need to invest in a giant tent and hope more Tulsis are willing to see the light.

The post Being a Conservative Shouldn’t Make You an Isolationist appeared first on Granite Grok.

Merrimack’s Democrats were unable to repeat their 2018 feat. That’s the year they managed to get four Democrats into the Statehouse from my town. This year they got three, and that is three too many, but they’ve got a problem. They won based on a lie.

Rung is by far the most prominent Dem in a still mostly Republican town. She was the only Left-Wing state rep to survive the 2020 purge – we sent three of four packings. And for 2022, she ran on the slogan People over politics. Anyone who ever had to deal with her or either of the other two who clawed their way back into office in the midterms knows it’s a promise they can’t keep.

They’ve probably already broken it. And that’s good news for Republicans if they can pay attention and take some advice.

Under no circumstance is Rosemarie Rung capable of putting people before her Left-Wing politics. All you need to do to prove it is screengrab her social media feeds. That goes for (the other two) as well. Save them to a folder titled “Name of Candidate: people over politics.” When the 2024 race heats up, you’ll have more ammunition than you could possibly need.

Every time she opens her mouth come campaign season, you can say, ‘before you believe her, she lied last time around,’ and bring the “receipts.” If you’ve done it right, you’ll never have to share the same screengrab twice. Can’t be trusted. Lies to voters. No integrity. You get the idea.

And it’s her own damn fault.

Unless she intends to turn over a new leaf.

We should start a pool. If she’s not already broken her people over political pledge, how long until Rosemarie Rung proves she lied on her campaign signs?

 

The post How Democrat Rosemarie Rung Won and Lost appeared first on Granite Grok.

The Biden Administration is about to add a $6/Gallon tax when you fill up your car. Arbitrarily, by regulators – those faceless, unaccountable, unelected, and unassailable bureaucrats who are part of the Deep State that know better how you are to run your lives than you do.

And in this case, raising the cost of your next fill-up.  If you now pay $3.70/gallon at the pump, try $9.70 if they get their way. So if you have a 15-gallon fill-up, your cost will go from $55.50 to  $145.50:

EPA floats sharply increased social cost of carbon

EPA has proposed a new estimate for the social cost of carbon emissions, nearly quadrupling an interim figure that has already drawn legal challenges from a host of Republican-led states.

The metric puts a price tag on the damages created by each metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions. Agencies can then use it as part of their analyses of the costs and benefits of more stringent climate regulation on sources ranging from power plants and automobiles to the oil and gas sector.

The Biden administration has been using the Interagency Working Group’s interim value of $51 per metric ton of CO2. But earlier this month, EPA quietly proposed increasing that number to $190.

And that $51/ton was an almost instant overloading by the Biden Eco-Socialists from Trump’s Social Cost of Carbon that had been set at $1/ton. Nice to see that the price of our energy is at the whim of these ideologues.  Did they learn nothing from the 70s when OPEC quickly raised the cost of oil by over 100%? I remember that as I got my license just after the oil boycott started – from 25 cents/gallon to over 75 cents. My part-time high school job paid $2/hour. Do the figuring of my anxiety level.

No legislation is required. In fact, your elected representative is not even wanted. So much for “saving our Democracy,” as Dems have kept yammering at us this past election cycle. For Progressives, however, this IS their end game – for us to be ruled by a government of expert Administrators who, we keep being told, are totally non-partisan and altogether altruistic, with only the best wanted for the rest of us.

This shows that they believe they control the basic laws of Supply and Demand – or can dismiss them at their pleasure. Did they not learn anything from the collapse of the Communist top-down command systems? Have they even heard of the Great Mind Fallacy?

Lord, have mercy upon us, for they believe they are better than You are.

Hey, I have this unused bridge over here – sell it to you cheap if you have any money left over…

 

(H/T: VodkaPundit)

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Remember that time on Twitter when a Federal Agency publicly stated that Ivermectin was for horses and cows, not people? That was The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They now claim that calling it horse paste wasn’t meant to prevent people from taking Ivermectin.

 

“The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations. They said what parties should do. They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19. They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it’s prohibited or it’s unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin,” Isaac Belfer, one of the lawyers, told the court during the Nov. 1 hearing in federal court in Texas.

 

It reminds me of the tale of the murder of Thomas a Becket. Four knights killed the Archbishop after overhearing their king being distraught by Becket’s actions. It was never Henry’s intention that the Archbishop be killed, but there it was, and there was no taking it back. All a misunderstanding.

And so it goes with the US Food and Rug Administration. “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all, Stop it.”

 

 

“Why you should not use Ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.”

News and media sites went all-in with stories about how the FDA declared that Ivermectin was for horses and cows, not people. Our local ABC news affiliate did a biased, unbalanced, and incomplete report that included a picture of the Ivermectin horse paste. Yours probably did too.

The Local and national COVID Karens went wild, as CNN, MSNBC, and all the alphabet networks went to war based on Ivermectin based on one tweet.

Efforts to improve access to Ivermectin with legislation at the state level were met with resistance based on the FDA and the mountain of media lies that built up around it.

I guess they were kidding around.

But to my knowledge, the FDA never attempted to correct the record, not in any meaningful way, and that assault continued until they were sued this year in Federal court. In the interim, doctors and pharmacists came under assault by state and local boards of health and licensing over the off-label use of Ivermectin to treat patients at risk or with COVID-19.

A use that was permissible under FDA rules as the FDA long ago licensed Ivermectin for humans until politics stepped in to interfere. A politics the FDA deliberately invoked with their tweet.

I guess they were kidding around, but the FDA never came to the defense of doctors or Pharmacists being threatened by state or local boards of health or practice. Folks who may have had to lawyer up to defend their livelihood based on the perception of the FDA’s position, which it is now defending in court, as noted.

“The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory.” You might want to tell that to Democrats in Congress. They are framing Donald Trump over J6 based on even flimsier perceptions of his use of language.

Two other problems come immediately to mind. First, many people who could be alive if the FDA had never started the war on Ivermectin died.

Second, suppose the FDA gets the case dismissed. I think they may be throwing a lot of folks under the bus, like every state and local board of health or legislative body (and more than a few hospitals) that acted to infringe on the doctor-patient relationships based on the Tweet and the Media broadsides that followed.

 

[EpochTimes] The hearing was held in a case brought by three doctors who say the FDA illegally interfered with their ability to prescribe medicine to their patients when it issued statements on ivermectin, an anti-parasitic that has shown positive results in some trials against COVID-19. …

Plaintiffs in the case include Dr. Paul Marik, who began utilizing ivermectin in his COVID-19 treatment protocol in 2020 while he was chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School and director of the intensive care unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

After the FDA’s statements, Marik was told to remove the protocol from the school’s servers while Sentara issued a memorandum to hospitals telling them to stop using ivermectin against COVID-19, with a citation to the FDA.

Marik was forced to resign from his positions because he couldn’t prescribe ivermectin due to the FDA’s statements, the suit alleges.

 

Did the FDA step in and correct the error made by Norfolk General Hospital (or any hospital?)? Not to my knowledge. Quiet as a church mouse until they needed to ask a judge to dismiss a complaint against them for actions directly resulting from their behavior.

Actions that should have significant downstream consequences no matter which way this goes.

 

 

 

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In October 2022, Daniel Rothschild self-published a book comprised of his numerous academic essays relating to government, anarchism, capitalism, and liberty. Daniel is an SEO specialist who works primarily with businesses in the cannabis industry. He earned a Master’s Degree in Economics from San Jose State University.

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